Ouch!

With my “new” bike in the shop, I went for a run yesterday. It nearly killed my body and my morale. Today, my quads are killing me, absolutely killing me. My Achilles tendons aren’t much better. The end result is that I am hobbling around like a double leg trauma victim. It hurts so bad to bend my legs that I avoid doing it at all costs. I almost have to lift my legs with my arms to get them to bend going up steps and into the car. Going down steps is just as bad. I’ve found that you can do it without bending your knees, but you have to kind of hunch your back and stick you butt out. All of this makes for lots of grimaces, grunts, and some pretty odd movements. I am really not socially palatable to most people right now. I appear to have special needs that should really require an aide or full-time care giver.

Obviously, running 3 miles was really tough for me. My breathing wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t especially good either, but my legs really gave out before the breathing. Running hurt so much that I had to stop and walk a lot…and I don’t like that. I’ve said before that quitting on a hill or some other challenge is a tough thing to overcome. It kills the morale at the moment, but sets the precedent that quitting is OK. Yesterday, I had to quit because I just couldn’t do it…or I just couldn’t make myself do it. I don’t like that. And on top of all the pain and suffering (still today), I only burned 408 calories! Calorie for calorie, any other form of torture would be better than running. Hell, burn the calories off with a flame thrower, roll me in honey and fire ants, make me crawl up a staircase over broken glass, strap me in a chair with my eyes propped open and make me watch the View. Any of that would be preferable to running.

Really, the effort wasn’t worth the result. I could have ridden my bike, burned more calories, and actually enjoyed it. I can honestly say without hesitation that riding my bike is fun and running is not fun. When I ride my bike, I feel like I am flying. When I run I feel like I am wearing two cement shoes and trying to run a shallow lake of oatmeal.

That said, the difficulty of the run has taught me something. I hadn’t given it tons of thought before, but it shouldn’t be surprising that just riding my bike is only going to get certain parts of me fit. Since a big part of what I am doing is making me more fit, this gives me pause to think. I really want to be able to ride 50 or 60 miles if I feel like it, so I want to get into some kind of cycling shape. At the same time, I want to keep losing weight and increasing my overall fitness. That means I need to keep working with the bike but I also need to add some other things to my fitness regimen.

Besides fitness there is something else nagging me here—running was hard and I couldn’t handle it. I’ve gotten myself into this frame of mind where I don’t want to back down and face limits. Oh sure, I want to be reasonable about my limits, but I don’t want to limit myself because something is hard. I feel like if I don’t start running and get into the kind of shape that will let me run 3 to 5 miles a couple of times a week, I’ll be backing down. Plus, cyclists say the ability to suffer and recover is a big part of bike riding…especially over long distances and up and down hills. I feel like I need to force myself to suffer through the running and conquer it—or at least get some kind of a handle on it. Maybe I should spend money on a therapist instead of a new pair of cross-training shoes.

I am not sure if I am really prepared to work out every day, but that is where I am seem to be going. I know I cannot take 2 hours every day to ride my bike, but I suppose I can take a half hour every couple of days to run and then get in maybe 2 or 3 rides in the course of a week. If I don’t completely wear my body out maybe I’ll lose what I need to so that my BMI says I am not overweight. Maybe.